Camila Mendes Salutes Rihanna for Promoting Body Positivity

The 'Riverdale star', who suffered from an eating disorder when she was younger, insists society should focus on good health over the way someone looks.

Jul 7, 2018

AceShowbiz -
Actress Camila Mendes has saluted model Ashley Graham and Rihanna for inspiring young women like her to focus on good health over the way they look.

The Riverdale star, who suffered from an eating disorder when she was younger, insists society should start focusing on promoting better health, and encourages her peers to latch on to the messages celebrities like the Diamonds hitmaker and Graham post, because they are not afraid to be honest about their weight and body types.

"I feel like, as a society, we're tackling beauty from the wrong angle," she tells Nylon Magazine. "We're tackling it from a place of appearance, rather than a place of health. The American idea of beauty is being thin, slender, and tall.

"When I see Ashley Graham post a photo, I'm like, 'She looks gorgeous', and when I see Rihanna, who's incredibly inspiring to me these days, she'll acknowledge, like, 'Yeah, I gained a little weight. My weight fluctuates, like, Who cares? I'm a woman'.''

Camila has been open about her own body image struggles, revealing that she was once so obsessed with dieting and being thin that she didn't have room to enjoy anything else, and decided to ditch dieting after chatting with a naturopath.

"I told her about my anxiety around food and my obsession with dieting," she wrote on Instagram earlier this year. "She phrased a pivotal question in such a way that struck a chord with me: 'What other things could you be thinking about if you didn't spend all your time thinking about your diet?'

"At some point in my life, I allowed my obsession with being thin to consume me, and I refused to make room in my mind for any other concerns. Somehow, I had stripped myself of all the pastimes that brought me joy, and all that was left of me was my anxiety around food. My passion for education, cinema, music, etc. - all the interests that used to occupy my mind - had been eaten away by my desire to be thin, and it made me miserable."